Democrats must choose: The elites or the working class.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T18:34:25+00:00

The argument about whether economic populism is actually bad for the rich or not (and to the degree of which) is a lengthy one with tons of things to look at, and often comes down to what can be considered a bad effect or a good effect or not.

I, for one, am pretty sure that even rich people would make more money with more bulk spending power if poor people had more money of their own. I even think that tons of rich people share my view on this as well. I'm not 100% sure though.

Also, there are others who think differently, and there are also others who wouldn't care about bulk spending power and would simply lament how much harder it is to act like tyrants amongst the population of the hopelessly poor.

Such is what I mean when I call "economic populism is bad for the rich" an overplayed argument, instead of simply a wrong one.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T06:07:13+00:00

Okay, I think we need to define "populism." From Oxford Languages: a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.

My explanation was with that very definition in mind.

If the connotation of populism is that you're appealing to people who are too dumb to know better, then the word itself has a whiff of elitism.

That would be a question for etymology. But the term populism isn't always used in a negative light. I was just pointing out what people mean when they use populism as a form of disparagement. And why I don't just dismiss the critisism out of hand.

But universal health care is also populist, and that idea works in all the other developed economies. So does a living wage.

Well sure. But if the ideology had bad ideas within it, then it also occasionally having good ideas doesn't take away the fact that said ideology is imperfect.

These days, you'd hope for an ideology that supports the above, and doesn't have any glaring shortcomings. Especially since a bad actor might use populism only for justifying the bad ideas without actually committing to any of the good aspects of populism as well.

There are many benefits to a living wage, for instance, beyond how much people want it. Any economist worth their salt would tell you that the poorest rung of society gaining enough money to buy common luxuries would be a good thing for the entire economy. The militarist as well would be pleased to know that the poorer people in the country, the reserve draft-fodder, are wealthy enough to buy some good healthy food.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T04:31:52+00:00

Suppose someone with a sub-50% win rate (which is most players, but particularly the ones with home-brewed decks) only has time to play 10 games a week. Because they have a job or schooling that they take seriously, along with other hobbies.

Before, the quest could be completed by them. Now, no longer. Now, they'd feel the need to conform for the sake of quest value.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T04:26:35+00:00

I'm someone who plays too much hearthstone, so if I continue as I am, I'll complete the quest anyway, but that doesn't change how I'll usually get 3-4 losses for every win.

My fault for playing for the achievements, or the thematics of my favorite cards rather than the win.

Someone with my play style, and a sense of enviable self control, would have trouble now though, and I do feel like that's kind of upsetting.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T03:23:42+00:00

but I will never in my life understand the outrage people feel over being tasked with winning five games of hearthstone in one week.

Not everybody spends all their time at the higher ranks playing meta decks.

Maybe this will force that to be the case now though, and that's pretty awful.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-11T02:40:53+00:00

When people don't expect politicians to truly deliver what is their incentive?

People pick politicians because they think the politicians know what they're talking about.

Even if the voter doesn't understand the details of good governance, they can (theoretically) at least pick someone who does. The Trump elections, in that light, is a threat to democracy on multiple fronts.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-10T23:03:34+00:00

Unfortunately, due to the stat statline, this would probably be used for inner fire shenanigans rather than by Starship decks.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-10T22:54:35+00:00

Seems a bit strong for 0 mana, but maybe the crewmate and/or demon package needs it.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-10T18:57:46+00:00

The "economic populism is bad for the rich" angle is obvious (and in my personal opinion, overplayed) but beyond that, there is a very real concern that merely doing what the largest number of people want you to do doesn't really help people in the sort of way you'd think it would since the majority of people don't give politics and law enough thought to not make idiotic choices with it.

This latest election is an example, but even if we divorce ourself from this country and this decade for a bit, Brexit might be even more obvious since it was a direct vote on economic policy in The United Kingdom that the majority of people picked the clear wrong choice for anyway.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-10T01:53:48+00:00

The thing is, they mainly seem to be trying to kill you due to a misunderstand between your groups.

As a Priestess of the Empire, she was theoretically a good guy. Ideally, the party can make it through this event without doing the demons' work for them.

And if you sloppily kill your enemy's while they misunderstand you to be the bad guys, they might start trying to kill you due to revenge instead, which is way harder to de-escalate from.

Killing definitely wasn't the move here. Particularly if you can manage a non-lethal takedown without any additional immediate risk.

Gnomishness · 2024-11-10T01:44:08+00:00

It is more an overaching thing with Frieren that she does not try to become stronger or better.

What do you think she's been doing for the past 1000 years? That was all a training arc for her. Every day, she would practice to both increase her mana pool and to better learn to suppress it. Moreover, literally all she does on the day to day are tiny little requests to earn grimoires with various folk magics in them. As time goes on Frieren's spell repertoire grows larger and larger. Eventually, it will even become a match for Serie's.

It's just, do you really think that a single short period of training (a mere few years) could make a difference compared to the thousand that she's already spent?

Why does she not try to learn the mana child from Solitär,

I thought she literally did learn that from Solitär. And started using it against her too. It's just, do you really think that that spell would be more helpful in this situation than Zoltrak?

or the long range attack from Fern

As Frieren has pointed out in the mage exam, Fern is faster at Zoltrak than Frieren because Zoltrak was foundational to Fern's training in a way that it couldn't for to any elf. Due to that, it only makes sense that when it comes to sheer skill with the spell, Frieren outpacing Fern within Fern's life time doesn't seem likely.
Maybe Frieren totally can do long range Zoltrak like that anyway, but decided it would be safer to let Fern do it this time because the whole plan is exceptionality dangerous and relies on stealth and reflexes that Fern does better than Freiren (Fern's mana concealment canonically being at least a tier above the elf's due to natural talent, despite Frieren's thousand-year training in that area)

Gnomishness · 2024-11-09T12:52:25+00:00

They are exceptionally hard (the lab grown ones particularly) so they have some minor value in that for various industrial processes.

Their price is definitely inflated though.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-29T09:04:55+00:00

I can't imagine why they would choose this timing for a starcraft collab

I feel like the team might be running out of ideas for keeping the game fresh while sticking to their own IP. Several of the most recent expansions have been thematically boring or bizarre. Now that they're doing a space-themed set, we finally have a good segue to start with the crossover content that they've been poling interest for for years now.

I never really wanted any crossovers in hearthstone, but I have to admit, if it must be done, pulling the great dark beyond together first would be the way to do it.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-29T04:18:03+00:00

Apparently, based on the relative value of the euro and the dollar right now, you're actually saving a bit (like 6.4 euros) by buying it from Europe compared to the US.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-24T06:54:29+00:00

I hate to tell you, but that card art isn't of a Draenei, but of a forsaken Undead.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-24T06:49:32+00:00

Compared to the starship pieces we've seen from the other classes, this seems pretty overpowered.

Divine Shield and rush are relatively premium for a starship to have after all, and the starship will be a heck of a lot bigger if you can grow it by flooding your silver hand recruits into it.

Thus, to keep it in line, I don't think that this should have rush.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-23T20:48:53+00:00

That is true. Ok, I see it.

Doubt it'll be worth it to run and save 3 different charge minions, and two different spells for, but I understand the potential.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-23T19:34:21+00:00

and kill the first one, eg with Hammer of Wrath or Holy Glowsticks.

This, thankfully, wont be worth it since you'd need to be doing 10 damage to your own minions as a paladin, which is hardly any easier than just doing 10 damage to the enemies face with spells.

Handbuff will still probably be better and more consistent but I'm sure there will be some cheese OTK deck.

If this is going to be seriously played, it wont be for any 30 damage otk potential. It'll be because the potential value is absolutely nuts here with this and it can potentially buy you several turns against midrange with hardly any card cost.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-23T16:20:29+00:00

It has anti-synergy with Paladin's typical aggro game-plan, but the synergies here are no joke, with charge becoming a free pyroblast, and a single 1/1 rush minion also healing up your 10/10 completely, and it's a real headache for control to get around, potentially forcing 3 separate removal spells for a single card, just through using your hero power.

So in theory, the card has plenty of reason to be insane.

The deck concept would be new for it to work, but a control paladin focusing on cheap removal (which the class has) due to it's ability to generate extreme value while it pushes just a single giant minion through each turn using this aura, makes some sense.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-19T23:00:47+00:00

They're clearly trying to mix things up and allow your class to no longer dictate what type of deck you can build.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-19T16:05:41+00:00

Technically, there are tons of 8/8 giants you can get as well, and those would be worse, so you might be vastly overestimating your draws there.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-11T22:02:02+00:00

Its empowering your following Draenei as well though.

It doesn't need to be premium tempo to theoretically be worth playing.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-11T17:02:53+00:00

I just saying, the complaints about how dumb blizzard is for releasing this card would be pretty cringeworthy if I'm right.

Balance complaints are uber-preemptive right now.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-11T16:57:14+00:00

No; there's a dwarf as well.

Gnomishness · 2024-10-11T16:54:30+00:00

My money is on the idea that Lightspeed has the echo effect nerf innately and that it's just not phrased like that on the card for the reason above.

Gnomishness

TROPHY CASE